For Certain Reasons

Yes, I watch American Idol.  And yes, I have opinions.

The Judges:

Randy Jackson - For me, for you, he was just alright.  Dawg. 

Kara Dioguardi - She actually had a few relevant things to say last night, but they were mostly points that other judges already made.

Simon Cowell - Better last night than the first night.  The guys didn't really have a singular great performance, and he seemed kind of insulted by it.

Ellen Degeneres - She went a little off the rails last night and started using quasi-musical terms that may have been out of her range of understanding - "You 'pushed it' and then you 'brought it back'" - stuff that really could mean just about anything and nothing at the same time.

Yes, I watch American Idol.  And yes, I have opinions.

The Judges:

Randy Jackson - I think he's on a mission to find the most completely generic thing to say at any given time.  It's so bad that I can't even really review him, so I'll just say "he did his thing."  (Dawg)

Kara Dioguardi - I don't really know what she's talking about.  Ever.  She does make some pretty serious faces, though, and that probably counts for something.  She totally said "Bitch" too!

Simon Cowell - He was off last night.  It was bizarre; one of those "it must sound different in person" sort of nights.  He commented to one of the girls about the surplus of internet singer-songwriters putting acoustic twists on hits...what exactly do you expect when the most mediocre internet busker won the whole damned thing last year?

While I was aware of it much earlier, I first became really acquainted with the internet my freshman year of college in the fall of 1995. For point of reference, Amazon.com had only launched two months prior to my moving into the dorms. For those of us who spent our late teens and early twenties "growing up" with the internet, we were among the first to experience the new and exciting yet morally challenging world of internet-facilitated music piracy.

At the time high-speed internet became more widely available, around 2000 or so, I started working for Grand Valley State University's AV Equipment Services. I was one of the nerds who pushed projectors around to classrooms. (Hey, at least they were digital.) (On second thought, that doesn't make it any better.) To this day it is probably my favorite job of all time: 15 minutes each hour setting up equipment before class, and 45 minutes of internet loveliness. This was at the height of Napster...then SongSpy...then AudioGalaxy...then Bearshare/Limewire et al... Until that point in my life, I had viewed the world of music through a keyhole, and anonymous internet file sharing, combined with a new group of relatively music-savvy coworkers, turned this view into a full 3-D IMAX extravaganza. If you ever wonder how I became such an unbearable music snob, you need look no further than my time at AVES.

"For certain reasons" is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of rhetorical crutches. Its meaning, for me anyway, originated in a 100-level communications class I took at Grand Valley State University. The professor had very little control over the discourse, which subsequently veered sometimes wildly off-topic. His name escapes me, but one of the students in the class liked to hold the discussion hostage with his rambling, ill-informed opinions. The mysterious source material for his arguments was always "certain reasons:"

"The government wants to privatize social security, for certain reasons."

"Flag-burning is un-American, for certain reasons."

I guess if you reference "certain reasons," no further citation is required. "For certain reasons" is my precursor to Ms. Teen South Carolina's "such as" and Sarah Palin's "also, too."

Over the last 3 years, my worldview has changed pretty drastically. I deconstructed virtually everything I thought I believed, and put it back together based upon reason and critical thinking. It's something I think everyone should do...although it should probably be done before you make huge commitments in your personal life, career, etc. My commitments are still very much intact, but changing your worldview in such an environment certainly doesn't make things easier.

As one of the founding members of FreeThought Fort Wayne, I'll do most of my "freethinker" blogging there. Living in (latest presidential election aside) bright red Indiana and working in the construction industry, I have to chose carefully when to push my progressive opinions, so they will find a home here. I'll also write about pop culture as the mood strikes.

Thanks for reading.

m